From out of the Fog came...

[Fog]

Scroll down my friends... The stuff here is abandoned.




After some time of little progress in my pixelating abilities, I have decided to devote some of my time to myself, and hopefully improve. I didn't raise my 4-5 month old art topic, obviously (I'm only a level four necromancer, duh!). I'm attempting to start making sprites by drawing a "sketch" with the brush tool, then picking the best lines on another layer with a pencil. I believe Wayfarer/Shadow use(d) some technique like this.

Not much to work with right now, but I want to know and correct any of my lines that look "weird" before I start colouring.

[wayfarer]

Yeah depending. Sometimes I did the rough black lines (and they are not necessary just 1 pixel width) to get the feeling for the sprite and later I added huge plobs of color behind and "chiseled" the whole thing out of the colored areas.
In the end most linework was erased or recolored. You should not worry much right now if it looks right.
I would just try to get the idea on paper. Next I would take a Wesnoth sprite put it next to my own to get a feeling for proportions and heights and hammer away.

I can't give a step by step introduction. I tried it but anyway the process is a lot more organic.
Sometimes I end with 3 or 4 variations before the final sprite before it feels right to me and most of the time it feels just right for about 3 hours.

[artisticdude]

You don't even really need to use the brush tool for sketching... I usually use the pencil tool to make a rough sketch of the sprite, then I clean up the lines and shade it.

The lines look pretty good to me. Shading is usually when you start to notice problems in the details of your linework though (at least that's the case with me), so be prepared to make some linework edits during the shading process if necessary.

[Fog]

While finishing some shading Gimp froze on me, so I took a screen-shot and now I'm copying it pixel for pixel...
Here's what I have copied so far:
Post Scriptum: The head is going to get some shrinking soon.

[Fog]

Update with a double post:
The head has been shrunked! I have also adopted a new skin colour palette. The line gutting his head is my designated hairline; I dread working with it for now. His left shoulder is looking very odd to me, I'll be making that rounder. I plan on implementing the dodge/burn tool on contrasting everything.

[Dixie]

Also make the left shoulder's outline lighter, and shade it with more light.

And now, the head is clearly too small (essential in height). Sprites usually have bigger heads than real human, proportionnally. Your previous head size seemed about okay to me (that is, as long as he was bald: hair should override it a bit )

Apart from that, I think it could use some darker shades in places, especially the vest near the (his) right. Also, maybe the vest a bit around the neck, and maybe in the middle too... Also, it seems the higher part of the vest (pectoral?)'s light direction is wrong: it looks like the lights comes from bottom right for the pecs, while is comes from top-right for the abs (and most everythin else, as in mainline).

Another thing I just noticed, about his legs placement: it looks like his legs face the viewer (us, or front), while his torso faces bottom right (as it should). Maybe make the (his) right leg a bit longer to reflect how it's a bit more to the front (thus making his legs face bottom right like his torso)?

[Fog]

Thanks for the crit, Dixie. Your descriptive-ness is very helpful .
I've changed the leg by extending it and rotating the foot, this should give the effect of it faceing the viewer. I've added an essential component to this sprite which is his sword (Now his file name is true!), although it may neeed more contrast. The left shoulder is hopefully fixed.

My Errors:
He looks like he is gripping the sword palm down... I don't know why this is caused, but a potential solution is to flip the sword vertically.
I want to move his legs/groin up a few pixels; as of now there is extra space.

I don't know how to solve any of the two errors without copying each pixel, which is tedious. Is the a hard edged lasso tool in gimp I could use to flip and slide?

[Speedbrain]

The head is still too small. I agree with Dixie that the head size looked about right in the previous versions of the sprite.

[Dixie]

About the sword: I'm no specialist about special tools in gimp or whatever, but you could fix it by rotating the hand. Right now, the problem is that the hand is positionned as if the blade was vertical, but the blade is not. I think the sprite is better with it's blade inclined like that, anyway. So yeah, try to rotate the hand. If you're not sure how, try to find a mainline sprite with a inclined hand. Or maybe one of my ninjas in my art thread could serve as a model for the shape... Or just plain ol' trial and error

Also: comment about the head still stands, he looks as if he ducked it 'tween his shoulders or something... And the hair is shade-able And you might not need that black outline between the hair and the head. Maybe use some of your darker skin tones, and darker hair tones, you should be able to find a way to make the demarcation between face and hair apparent without such a dark outline. In doubt, refer to a mainline sprite. Maybe Konrad, since I recall he's blond (although more golden than your actual platinum blond sprite )

[Fog]

The harline was only a marker, and the hair is going to be a different color; what you see now is the top of his head which is to be covered with hair. I had to look at it in a different point of view (which is hard!), but you're both right, his head is too small. I thought Konrad was a redhead and if thats the case thats the color I wanted anyway. What you said about the hand seems right, I'll try that out.

Edit: Maybe removing the unnecesary hair line will show you the size of the head (I'm considering putting a helmet on him anyways.). I also tried to fix the hand

[SFault]

More AA, less pillow shading. The legs have very sharp edges and the shoulderpads look kinda plastic. Shiny parts should be less orbic and more pillar shaped.

Look closely the light reflection in the shoulder area. http://www.knightsandarmor.com/knight3.jpg

[Fog]

Not knowing whether I should start a new topic intirely or continue this one, I'll simply update the subject.

Hello once again. School's begun, thus I may only have time to work on the weekends. As a middle school student taking several high school classes, I'm bound to be challenged. Nevertheless I have procured ~1/4 of a sprite. It is an undead warrior outfitted with especially made armor/weapons. I have a concept for him, so if you have any questions regarding, well... Concept, I can answer. Suggestions?

Edit: I removed the ellipse and fixed the ugly pattern on his sword.

[Fog]

Here's an update. I added some highlights and his lower extremities. The shading and palette for his pants may change, I'm not completely satisfied and it is to reminescent of his skin. There shall also be some armor extending from his belt, similar to that of the spearman. Hopefully I'm closer to mainline style than my previous attempts!

[Reepurr]

Hopefully I'm closer to mainline style than my previous attempts!

Yup.

This guy looks about the right size. Unfortunately, the sword seems a little strange for Wesnoth style, but that's probably just because it doesn't have a blood channel, or like other undead swords, it doesn't seem to be purple. Much better than my swords. [I can't do weapons to save my life]
Unfortunately (again), he was affected by the flipper-feet epidemic, and his legs are waaaay too bright.